Hello everyone! Recently, I’ve been looking into the law side of owning and operating a restaurant. There are many things to consider before owning and operating your own eating establishment! I have just watched 3 podcasts about entertainment law and thought I could shed some insight to everyone about what I have learned. Mostly I have focused on licensing, intellectual property, and labor laws.
First I listened to Jonathon Handel who covers a wide variety of different cases. He reviews them, gives his opinion on each case and tells you what you should be doing. What I really took from his podcast was to make sure everything you own has a trademark, license, or copyright. Everyone out there wants his or her share of the money, but if you have the license or copyright, it is the proof it belongs to you. Next, I listened to a professor from the law school of Suffolk University who focuses on the importance of intellectual property. My goal in the future is to open a restaurant, before I give to much information away to all my readers; I have to get copyrights, trademarks, and patents. I don’t want any of my followers to copyright the name of my restaurant (Sorry!). Many of you may not know, but you can even receive a patent for the design of a restaurant. Finally, I listened to a podcast from the California Restaurant Association (http://networldcra.wordpress.com) on employment laws. My restaurant will have many employees. Employment laws are constantly changing and updating. California has some interesting laws such in the restaurant industry, including a “not to compete” clause in many employees contracts. I did not think people would put them in restaurants, but it makes sense. What if there were trade secrets given out, you wouldn’t want you host/hostess or server going somewhere else to share them.
Many things come into consideration when looking at the legal side of things. I want to make sure my property belongs to me and is not being used by someone else. When hiring employees I have to make sure they are taken care of under proper employment laws and all rules are followed. Each time I go into a establishment that I enjoy I think of all of the little things that have to be built from the ground up.
